The Simsimi artificial intelligence conversation program is causing social degeneration and creating gaps between members of the family, Culture Minister Sukumol Khunploem said Friday.
Culture Minister Sukumol Khunploem (Photo by Chumporn Sangvilert)
The Simsimi chat bot is a smartphone application created by a South Korean developer in 2002, originally for the purpose of language learning.
"I personally think that the program reflects social problems that are very worrying. Instead of talking to or interacting with friends, people today talk to themselves and normal people don't do that.
"Many young people are using this type of program and this shows the decline in the closeness of the family ties and human interaction," said Mrs Sukumol.
She said the issue is a new social problem for Thai society and it could become more serious if it is not dealt with soon.
The Culture Ministry has the duty to oversee things that can cause cultural deviation and there were many complaints about the application, she said.
"I would like to warn the society that some things are inappropriate and people should be more cautious when playing with the program and should not be misled by wrong trends.
"To solve this problem, cooperation from all sides is needed," Mrs Sukumol said.
She said the Culture Ministry could not monitor and censor the application, unlike internet websites.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap (Photo by Apichit Jinakul)
Information and Communication Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap said the Simsimi developer has agreed censor swear words and personal rights violations from its application's Thai vocabulary.
The South Korean developer created it to keep people from feeling lonely, Grp Capt Anudith said.
He said the database compiles wordlists and comments taught by users, but there are some users that teach Simsimi to say rude things, which is not the application's purpose.
"I have instructed officials to gather inappropriate words and comments in the application and send them to the developer as evidence," said the ICT minister.
Simsimi, created in 2002, has more than 2.7 million users worldwide. It is widely described as a robotic chat app now used by lonely people.
The Simsimi app draws on a base of about 10 million question-and-answer conversations to come up with what many users describe as the best conversation app they have ever used, according to the International Business Times website.
When a user sends a text to the Simsimi app on their iPhone or Android device, or communicates with it on their computer, the app responds by automatically scanning for related conversations in its massive database, then spitting out a relevant, and often hilarious, response.
Simsimi users say it provides an experience much like one they might have with a quick-witted and lightning-fast human texting buddy, based on the input of its millions of users.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/285978/20120123/what-simsimi-iphone-android-
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